PoliticsNow: ALP win? Boats would be here, Dutton says

Peter Dutton reveals asylum-seekers were ready to set sail, as 20 Sri Lankans are picked up.

This boat carrying asylum-seekers from Sri Lanka was the third intercepted while trying to reach Australia since the federal election. The five men aboard were flown back to Colombo yesterday morning.

Hello and welcome to PoliticsNow, The Australian’s blog on the happenings at Parliament House in Canberra.

TOP STORY: Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says 20 Sri Lankan asylum seekers recently intercepted by offshore border patrols would have landed in Australia if Labor had won the last election.

Another blow for Labor

The Morrison government’s foreign fighters legislation has passed through the House of Representatives, after Labor’s amendments were rejected, Greg Brown reports.

The bill will temporarily block the entry of returning jihadis who have fought for Islamic State, al-Qa’ida and other terror groups in the Middle East.

It is due to be debated in the Senate tomorrow, where it needs to be passed to become law.

Nationals Senator outlines tax agenda

New Nationals senator Susan McDonald has called for regional taxation zones and wide-ranging decentralisation of services to dramatically revitalise the bush, AAP reports.

In her first speech to parliament, the Queenslander said even opportunities between the bush and cities began to diverge in the 1990s.

“It was a time of productivity commissions and user pays. It was a time that the ground cracked and the chasm that divided regional communities and urban places began,” she told senators on Tuesday.

“That gap has widened to the point that something dramatic needs to happen to revitalise the heart and the soul of our nation and to draw our people home. “This big country needs dreamers - giants who imagine more not less.”

Senator McDonald, who will chair the Senate’s regional affairs committee, said a country like Australia needed secure, reliable and affordable water, electricity, communications and transport.

She called for bold economic policy including taxation zones and rebates to give incentives to businesses and people to escape urban congestion in favour of building the regions.

“In one big country, decentralisation shouldn’t just be a policy of government, it should be the business of government, entrenched across the political divide as the natural way of government,” Senator McDonald said.

The former businesswoman, who grew up on her family’s property in Cloncurry, also said there needed to be a review of Australia’s aviation industry to examine the cost of air travel for country people.

“In the regions we rely on roads and airports and there is no moral reason why it should cost more to fly from one of our capital cities to one of our regional towns, than it does to fly overseas,” Senator McDonald said.

Senator McDonald said the government must not shy away from investing in health services, education and significant infrastructure in rural Australia. Investing in nation-building dams across Queensland was also a priority.

“Government must not turn around with a calculator and a balance sheet in hand and say that an inadequate population makes these crucial growth services uneconomical,” she said.

Senator McDonald, who has helped boost the number of women in the Nationals’ party room from two to six, said she was proud of not being pre-selected because of a gender quota.

Before entering parliament at the May election, she was managing director of Super Butcher, a meat retailing business owned by her family’s MDH company. MDH is one of Australia’s largest cattle operations, spanning 14 properties in Queensland over an area of 3.36 million hectares.

— AAP

Richard Ferguson 3.15pm: No questions for the PM

Scott Morrison closes question time and notes he has not been asked one question by Labor.

“I would invite the opposition to ask me a question tomorrow. You didn’t do that today,” he says.

The Prime Minister walks away when Anthony Albanese rises to ask a question.

He is then made to sit down while Speaker Tony Smith gives a note about plans to change voting in the chamber using iPads.

Richard Ferguson 3.09pm: Labor hounds Taylor

Labor is still pursuing Energy Minister Angus Taylor over his dealings with an environment department investigation into a company he had an interest in.

“Why won’t the minister tell the house whether or not a compliance officer was present at the meeting?” Opposition environment spokeswoman Terri Butler asks.

The Minister continues to say he dealt with the matter appropriately.

“At the time, 2017, when I was in a previous role, I had no idea who was coming to that meeting, I didn’t appoint, I didn’t ask those people to come to a meeting. My understanding that there was a compliance officer there,” Mr Taylor says.

Richard Ferguson 3.04pm: Pill testing not on COAG agenda

Independent MP Andrew Wilkie asks Health Minister Greg Hunt asks if he will put pill testing on the agenda of the next meeting of COAG health ministers.

Mr Hunt says he will not.

“Today I will respectfully but categorically disagree with the member. What he has proposed is, I believe, a dangerous and unfounded course of action,” the Health Minister says.

“Let me say this. Whether it is tested or not: MDMA, ice, certain opioids can be deadly in their purest form.

“These are drugs which are illegal for a reason. They are drugs because they can kill. They are drugs because the nature of the response may not be known in an individual case.

“At the very moment that this parliament, that this government and the entire nation is seeking to deal with some of the challenges of amphetamines and of opioids, the idea that we would be condoning, encouraging and supporting the expansion of their consumption is, to my mind, utterly unthinkable.”

Richard Ferguson 2.56pm: Labor’s ‘grubby smear’

Energy Minister Angus Taylor says Labor are trying to make a “grubby smear” as it asks again about his involvement in an environment department investigation into a company he once had an interest in.

“I have been very clear on this, this was not a discussion about compliance action, it was a briefing from departmental officials on technical aspects of a revised listing under the EPBC act,” he says.

“And the secretary of the department has made very clear, and I quote, ‘I can be very clear that Minister Taylor has never raised the issue.’

“This is the point. And I make no apology Mr Speaker, I make no apology for acting in the interests of the farmers in my electorate and it is about time those opposite, it is about time those opposite stood up for the farmers in their electorates.”

Richard Ferguson 2.55pm: Taylor ‘always discloses interests’

Labor environment spokesman Terri Butler asks Energy Minister Angus Taylor if he disclosed a previous interest in a company that his department investigated.

Mr Taylor says he has “always” disclosed his interests.

“I received a briefing from departmental officials on technical aspects of a revised listing under the act and the reason is that those changes impacted the farmers in my electorate. I care about the farmers in my electorate. I care about the farmers in my electorate,” he says.

“I wanted to see the drought fund go through yesterday, despite, despite the protestations from those opposite.”

Greg Brown 2.53pm: ‘Don’t disrespect your colleagues’

Scott Morrison has urged Coalition MPs to stop freelancing on policy in the media, declaring it showed “disrespect” to other government MPs.

The Prime Minister told MPs in this morning’s party room meeting that winning government “is not a blank cheque”.

With Coalition MPs this week speaking out against the government’s policy on Newstart and superannuation, Mr Morrison said MPs needed to stick to the government’s core agenda.

“Where there are issues that need to be explored I would urge colleagues to use the internal processes available to each of us. Initially talking to ministers and using backbench committees and discussing matters in the party room,” Mr Morrison told the party room, according to a government source.

“They are the processes you can use to get things done and also the processes that, when you use them effectively, earn the respect of their colleagues.

“If you go outside of those processes it is showing disrespect to those who you are sitting next to, showing disrespect to other colleagues.”

Richard Ferguson 2.47pm: ‘Boat would’ve arrived if Labor won’

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton tells the House that a boat of 20 Sri Lankan asylum seekers recently intercepted by offshore border patrols would have landed in Australia if Labor had won the last election.

“The reality is that boats had already been put on the water during the election campaign in anticipation of the member for Maribyrnong (Bill Shorten) — remember him? — becoming Prime Minister of this country,” he says.

“That is the reality. Forty-one people on board headed our way from Sri Lanka almost went to the bottom of the ocean and fortunately those people were saved and returned back to Sri Lanka.

“There was another vessel of 20 people on board that we were able to intercept and return those 20 people back. Those people no doubt would have landed here under the Labor Party.

“I can inform the house that we have dealt with a vessel on water in recent days and we have returned that a vessel which contained five male Sri Lankans back to Sri Lanka and I put praise on all of those officers who have been involved in that operation.”

Richard Ferguson 2.44pm: ‘I care about farmers’

Labor environment spokeswoman Terri Butler asks Energy Minister Angus Taylor if a company he has an interest in is being investigated by the department of the environment over land clearing.

Mr Taylor says he no longer has an interest in that company.

“In 2017, I received a briefing from departmental officials on technical aspects of a revised listing under the act and I make absolutely no apology for seeking and receiving a briefing on policies that seriously impact farmers in my electorate because I care about farmers in my electorate,” he says.

“I care about farmers in my electorate and … what the people expect from me as their local member, the most remarkable fact is that other affected members such as the Member for Eden Monaro (Labor’s Mike Kelly) did not do the same.”

Richard Ferguson 2.39pm: Taylor blunt on nuclear

Labor MP Pat Conroy if Energy Minister Angus Taylor if he is backing former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce’s proposal for nuclear energy.

“Is the government working on a policy proposed by the member for New England where, if you can see the nuclear reactor from your house, your power is for free. If you are within 50km of a reactor, you get the power for half price,” Mr Conroy asks.

Mr Taylor replies with one word. “No.”

Richard Ferguson 2.35pm: Still a nuclear-free zone

Labor MP for Richmond Justine Elliot asks Energy Minister Angus Taylor to rule out building a nuclear power station in northern NSW or the Gold Coast.

Mr Taylor says he will focus on outcomes, not energy sources.

“We currently have a moratorium on nuclear power generation in Australia, and the government has no plans to change that,” he says.

“Now we always approach these things with an open mind.

“We do not have a plan to change the moratorium. I tell you what we will do. We will steadfastly focus on affordable, reliable energy for all Australians.

“And we will not put in place policies that are going to double the price of electricity and triple the price of gas as those opposite proposed at the last election.”

Richard Ferguson 2.30pm: Counting down the emissions years

Labor energy spokesman Mark Butler asks Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor asks if total emissions grew in 2016.

It appears we are counting down to 2013 — the year the Coalition came to power.

Speaker Tony Smith is warning Mr Taylor he must ask the question in relation to the year. It’s all part of Labor’s new strategy of using stringent parliamentary rules on questions.

“In 2013, the Climate Change Authority forecast that the emissions in 2018 would be around 680 tons and in fact, and, in fact, they were at 534 million tons now,” Mr Taylor says.

Richard Ferguson 2.25pm: PM the ‘modern day Moses?’

Has Bob Katter snuck into the PM’s church? Picture: Kym Smith

Question Time turns Biblical. North Queensland independent Bob Katter asks the Prime Minister about turning inland streams north of Tennant Creek which he argues would provide irrigation worth 20 times the Hughenden irrigation scheme. “And wouldn’t this make you the modern day Moses?’’ Mr Katter asks.

The PM rises and says: “He must have been sitting on the back stalls at my church on Sunday because the pastor was actually talking about Moses on the weekend …’’ the PM says before getting down to business.

“We have worked to ensure that we have committed $180 million for the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund to build the Hughenden irrigation scheme and so far, we know that that can capture and manage after 500,000 megalitres of water,’’ Mr Morrison says.

“And this will grow primary production in the region significantly, ensure the best possible management of what you rightly describe as the scarce water resource.”

Richard Ferguson 2.18pm: Climate change the theme

Labor energy spokesman Mark Butler asks Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor if total emissions rose in 2017, continuing today’s climate change theme from the Opposition.

Mr Taylor attacks Mr Butler over his controversial pre-election climate change policies.

“I’m delighted to take these questions from you because during the election campaign you were not able to answer a single question on the cost of impacts of your energy policies,” he says.

“Not a single question. The speaker, we have seen again in the last year a reduction in emissions per capita in emissions intensity and in the electricity sector and it is true of the absolute level there was a small increase in the last 12 months.

“That was driven entirely, entirely Mr Speaker, by a growth in LNG exports.”

Richard Ferguson 2.08pm: LNG ‘causing emissions pressure’

Labor energy spokesman Mark Butler asks Emissions Reductions Minister Angus Taylor if Australia’s total emissions rose in 2018.

Mr Taylor said there has been “upward pressure” on emissions due to economic growth.

“As I said, we are in our 28th year of economic growth and the emissions per capita are the lowest (in) years, the lowest level in 29 years,” he says.

“But there is no doubt that there was upward pressure in recent years on emissions driven by growth in LNG exports … they bump up and down.

“Our LNG exports reduced global emissions by up to 26 per cent of our total emissions, because when you sell LNG up into China and Korea and Asia, even though we where the increased emissions from the extraction of that LNG, we see a reduction in global emissions.”

Richard Ferguson 2.06pm: ‘Emissions are down’

Anthony Albanese opens question time by asking Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor if carbon emissions are higher now than when the Coalition was elected in 2013.

Mr Taylor says emissions intensity is at the lowest level it has been for 29 years.

“Our electricity sector emissions are down 6.5 million tons on the year, 2 December 2018.

“We have seen during that year the highest level of renewable investment in the world. Double the next country in the world.

“And we are on target to exceed our Kyoto obligations for 2020 by 367 million tons.”

Simon Benson 1.20pm: Joyce says Bishop, Pyne jobs don’t stack up

Criticism of Julie Bishop and Christopher Pyne’s post politics jobs with global firms is growing with new Queensland LNP Senator Gerard Rennick telling colleagues that he feels “uncomfortable” and Barnaby Joyce saying the new positions don’t “stack up’’.

Multiple sources have told The Australian that Senator Rennick said in the joint party room meeting this morning that Mr Pyne and Ms Bishop — who have both taken controversial paid consulting jobs with private sector firms — were also on substantial tax payer funded defined benefit pension schemes.

The Australian has been informed that Senator Rennick “implored” his colleagues who were close to Ms Bishop and Mr Pyne to encourage them to end their roles.

Mr Joyce, the former Nationals leader, said that guidelines on minister’s post-politics careers needed to be reviewed in light of Mr Pyne and Ms Bishop’s jobs.

Mr Pyne has accepted a role at EY while Ms Bishop now sits on the board of Palladium. Both global consulting firms have ties to their previous portfolios of foreign affairs and defence respectively.

“Dr (Martin) Parkinson has done a review on this and said there is nothing wrong. I think that possibly means we need to do a review on what is right,” Mr Joyce told Sky News.

“I do have concerns that someone leaves here with the knowledge that they have in their jobs. It could be seen as an advantage to one commercial entity to another commercial entity because of their understanding of their previous portfolio matters.

“I don’t think it stacks up them going into another job the way they did. They might be with in the guidelines but I think it’s outside … the tenor of what is supposed to happen.”

Mr Pyne and Ms Bishop — who both retired at the last election — could be hauled to parliament to explain their new jobs after the senate voted for an inquiry despite PM&C secretary Martin Parkinson clearing the pair of breaching ministerial standards.

Greg Brown 12.15pm: Labor to back foreign fighters bill

Labor will support the Morrison government’s foreign fighters legislation after proposing its own amendments to the bill.

At a caucus meeting this morning, Labor MPs waved through a shadow cabinet decision that the party will try and amend the bill to bring it in line with the recommendations from the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security.

The caucus agreed to pass the legislation if Labor’s amendments fail.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton has chosen not to embrace two of the committee’s recommendations relating to the temporary exclusion orders, a decision which has drawn criticism from Labor.

The recommendations not being adopted by the government would impose a restriction that would prevent the minister from making a temporary exclusion order unless the government reasonably suspected an individual was involved in terrorism related activities outside Australia. The committee also recommended a temporary exclusion order could be made only if it would substantially assist in preventing the provision of support for, or the facilitation of, a terrorist act. The government chose not to incorporate this in its bill.

Richard Ferguson 12.01pm: Labor to call for Newstart review

Labor will call on the government to review and increase the rate of the Newstart allowance.

The Opposition agreed in caucus today to pressure the government to increase the dole, but will not suggest what that boost should be in dollar terms until closer to the election, in case economic conditions change.

Labor wants the issue of Newstart referred to the parliamentary standing committee on economics, but will not back a Greens bill to raise Newstart today.

Ean Higgins 11.10am: Farmers take aim at hipsters

One of the nation’s farm leaders has told a conference he himself suffers bouts of depression during the drought, and urged other farmers to join him in taking measures to maintain mental health.

In an opening address to the NSW Farmers annual conference in Sydney, its president James Jackson also told delegates they should stand up against a “witch hunt” by anti-farming activists, urban “latte-drinking hipsters”, and GetUp because farmers had a right to farm and did it well.

Read the full story here

Greg Brown 10.41am: Get off Newstart and go bush for jobs: McCormack

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack says unemployed people should be willing to move towns to find work as he defends the rate of Newstart.

Mr McCormack said there were “good paying jobs” in regional Australia Newstart was only supposed to be a temporary income.

“There are jobs out there in regional Australia, and there are good paying jobs. And what I think we do need in this country is a more mobile workforce. So people have to be prepared to move sometimes out of their comfort zone and out of their home town to the next town to take a job,” Mr McCormack told Sky News.

“There are jobs there it is just that you are not always going to get a job in the home town you have grown up in. You are not always going to get the job for the right here and now.

“A job, any job, will be better than none at all and it will be better than living on welfare. And certainly with Newstart it is that stopgap, it is that safety measure it is not supposed to be a living wage as such.”

Richard Ferguson 10.12am: Vegan crackdown is just popularity stunt: ALP

Labor’s agriculture spokesman Joel Fitzgibbon says Scott Morrison’s plan to tackle farm-invading vegan activists is only being pushed because it may be “popular” and could harm journalists.

“People are starting to work out that this is a government trying to play themselves into an issue because they think it’s a popular thing to do,” he told Sky News.

“We have no problems with the objectives … We’re worried that it is just impinging on what the states already do and therefore making the law necessarily complicated.

“We think there needs to be protections for journalists, for whistleblowers, and there are even questions about the constitutionality of that bill.

“Our posture is to support but it will be reasonable for us to ask to refer that bill back to a committee.”

The Prime Minister has made the law — meant to stop activists using farmers’ private information to harass them — one of his legislative priorities this sitting week.

Richard Ferguson 8.25am: ALP to oppose rogue unions move

Anthony Albanese says he will oppose the government’s bill to deregister rogue unions and union leaders such as controversial construction unions boss John Setka.

“This is just another anti-union piece of legislation from a government that is anti-union,” he told ABC News.

“When people do the wrong thing … action should be taken. When unions do the wrong thing — they’ve been charged, they’ve been fined — I regard John Setka as a person whose values are different from Labor’s, and that’s why he’s suspended from the Labor Party. He will expelled.

“But the government never talks about employers who do the wrong thing here.”

Richard Ferguson 8.20am: Albo: we’ll delay foreign fighters bill

Anthony Albanese will try to delay Scott Morrison’s temporary exclusion orders to keep out foreign fighters.

Labor’s home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally has written to Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton asking for the foreign fighters bill to be sent back to parliament’s joint standing committee on intelligence and security.

But the Opposition is widely expected to push through the foreign fighters bill if its delay tactics fail.

“There have always been adoption of the joint intelligence committee recommendations,” Mr Albanese told ABC radio.

“There are a range of recommendations they (the joint committee) have made unanimously which the government is not adopting.

“We will be pushing the joint parliamentary committee’s amendments.”

Labor’s caucus will discuss the foreign fighters bill later today.

What’s making news:

Farmers are a step closer to receiving ongoing funds to combat the impact of drought after Scott Morrison’s $5 billion relief plan passed the House of Representatives on Monday night, with Labor backing the bill in an 11th-hour backflip.

An Australian offshore border patrol has intercepted a group of asylum-seekers trying to reach the mainland by boat as Labor yesterday vowed to resist moves to repeal contentious laws that have handed doctors greater control over refugee medical transfers.

Former cabinet ministers Christopher Pyne and Julie Bishop will be asked to front parliament to explain if their new roles with global consulting firms represent a breach of ministerial standards, after the Senate yesterday voted in favour of an inquiry.

Australia is pushing to cement its status as the security partner of choice for Pacific nations, forming a new expeditionary training force to work with key regional neighbours, including Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Vanuatu.

Labor deputy leader Richard Marles has signalled that the opposition will try to reach a compromise with the government over its foreign fighter legislation, which is aimed at stopping Australians with terror links from returning home for up to two years.

Scott Morrison has pledged an extra $250 million towards electricity projects in Papua New Guinea during talks with the country’s leader, James Marape.

Alice Workman’s Sketch: Labor has ditched the zingers in a new Question Time tactic, as Albo banks on an unlikely ally.

Strewth is delighted to welcome the first baby of the 46th Parliament.